New City Ordinance | April 5, 2010

I have kept silent on the new Texarkana city ordinance long enough. Our city has gone overboard. Texarkana city council recently voted to approve an ordinance giving the city inspectors the right to tag a property substandard if it is not up to the current building code. How does this make sense?

For years homes have been built up to the code of their time and have been lived in since then. Even some of the homes Texarkana is targeting are tenant occupied. These tenants are forced to move out of their homes if they are not brought up to code withing 30 days of the tagged date.

When the home owner attempts to work with the city the city is less than responsive. The city is not even willing to give out check list on what needs to be done to bring the home to code. They feel we should know the code and fix it ourselves.

According to the the city their plans are to take the homes that are not brought to code and donate them to the Housing Authority of Texarkana, TX for the development of small brick single family homes. Which in turn, in their eyes, will generate more tax revenue for the city.

I have a problem with this. My opinions are broad and detailed, however I will keep this post short and simple to save your time.

As a local Real Estate Broker I am very upset about this for the following reasons:

1. Where are these people going to go? They pay about $300/ per month. This is all they can afford and the majority of them are satisfied with their current home.

2. How are the landlords going to continue making their payments without the income generated by the tenants?

3. And when the landlords are not able to make the payments what is going to happen to the banks? Most of these loans are made by local banks. This has the potential to devistate the lending market for low end rentals. In fact, one of the major local lenders has already started requiring a clean inpspection report on investments properties located within the Texarkana, TX city limits.

4. How am I, as a Realtor, supposed to recommend to my clients they buy an investment property in Texarkana? It is my understanding that they are not going to stop in the Rose Hill area. The city is going to continue throughout the entire city until every home is up to code.

As I stated before this is just the beginning of my opinions. I am sure I will be writing more later as this progresses. I just wanted to open a door and let light on the situation to all of you.